Abstract
Along with the democratization, openness, and advancement of Taiwan’s society, as well as the shift in talent cultivation and knowledge paradigms over the past few decades, the importance and value of general education in the process of nurturing talent have increasingly been recognized. Especially at the higher education level, where Taiwan’s general education has become more mature. On the other hand, the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education, officially implemented in 2019 (commonly referred to as the 108 Curriculum Guidelines), emphasize curriculum beliefs and content design that also show a clear trend towards general education. This allows Taiwan’s general education to seamlessly connect from national education to higher education. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between “general education” and “Curriculum Guidelines of 12- Year Basic Education”. We discuss the development and core concepts of general education and basic education. Secondly, after analyzing the key connotations of the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education, we explained how they are complementary to general education, including: (1) emphasizing the cultivation of key competences; (2) promoting the integration and application of knowledge; (3) supporting the learning of enquiry and practice; (4) emphasizing lifelong learning and self-directed learning. Given the broad character of general education’s curriculum objectives, it can be seen as an important pathway to support and develop the competence experiences gained by students in the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education into higher education. The paper concludes with conclusions and recommendations.